Product Description

Alexandra Stoddard continues her creative and insightful guidance by showing us how to make our homes a real expression of our true selves. Starting with the Fifteen Defining Principles of Interior Design, Stoddard grounds us in the classic standards that make any home timeless and follows with inventive suggestions. Her own bold ideas about color, pattern, and texture are affordable tips from her own vast experience involving every imaginable decoration problem. From lighting a room to adding fabrics, furnishings, and the perfect finishing touches, she offers her expertise while always encouraging us to listen to our inner voice for the final answer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #442055 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-01
• Released on: 1999-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.com Review
Alexandra Stoddard has reinterpreted and restated for a late-20th-century audience the basis of Edith Wharton's and Ogden Codman Jr.'s 1897 The Decoration of Houses, then a groundbreaking book. Stoddard's approach to interior design is sensitive, holistic, practical, and thorough, building a solid aesthetic on classical design principles. Readable and appealing, the book offers a thoughtful analysis of the intersection of architecture with personal style, interspersed with concrete and sensible suggestions for the decoration and use of floors, walls, furniture, and storage space. As in Stoddard's other books, her warm personality comes through on every page. (You have to love a woman who says, "Most rooms are improved by the presence of books.... A house with many books is a house with many mansions.")

From Library Journal
Each of these books gives a different view of some of the major issues in home decorating. Interior designer Hanby-Robie has written an easy-to-read workbook to be used by the do-it-yourselfer. She discusses furniture, wall and window treatments, fabrics, flooring, interior design accessories, and planning. For all topics she never advocates a particular style but gives practical advice to enable consumers to make knowledgeable home-decorating choices. Landis, a contributing editor to Metropolitan Home, takes a "helpful hints" approach to interior design, much like Leslie Linsley does in her 15-Minute Decorating Ideas (LJ 5/15/97). The "workable (and) designer-tested" tips are divided into chapters for topics such as color, windows, and display. Appendixes provide information on hiring an interior designer and a helpful list of mail-order resources for home furnishings. Stoddard, the interior designer and much-published writer, updates Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman's classic The Decoration of Houses, first published 100 years ago. More style conscious and less tip-oriented than the authors of the other two books, she gives her own comprehensive interpretation of how to decorate a home in the last years of the 20th century. All three titles would be excellent, broad-interest additions to every public library.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Alexandra Stoddard lives in New York City and Stonington, Connecticut, with her husband Peter Megargee Brown. She has two grown daughters, Brooke and Alexandra.

Customer Reviews

A Useful Book for People Decorating Their Homes
Stoddard is an interesting writer. She is well-read and her work usually reflects her general rounded background. This book, unlike most of her others, gets down the the nitty-gritty of design. The illustrator does an amazing job rendering the different pieces of furniture, so that the reader can actually decide what style he or she prefers before wandering into stores. Stoddard gives tremendous detail about the basics and the essentials of design, as well as the practical point that if you don't like it you shouldn't do it.

This book is indispensible for people who are decorating or redecorating their home.

Wonderfully sumptuous and comprehensive
I got this book for a present for myself at Christmas and have not once regretted it. The author's conversational style makes you feel as if she's giving you a private consultation. I don't always find myself agreeing with her self-confessed tastes, but she's always clear about what are her tastes and what kinds of alternate styles are available. Stoddard tells you what cornice moldings are, what types go with what styles, what features of design are the most basic, what the general pricing ranges are for the various style motifs and details, and what the advantages and disadvantages of various design features are. The first part of the book provides prompts for analyzing your own style so that you can read the book in that context.

I keep this book by my bedside and read it a little each night, letting her advice soak into my subconscious, and then during the day, look around my house and think "hmm, I could put a molding here...a white tiling pattern there...." and yet I have not spent any money yet. Great way to start decorating!

Beautifully Written and Very Helpful
If you love Garden and English Country styles this book is a must for your library. It includes information about color and fabric to hanging chandeliers and dealing with contractors and everything between. It also includes a wonderful index that is easy to refer to after you've enjoyed reading it cover to cover. It is written in Alexandra's fun and personal style with bits of wisdom from many of her favorite authors. Don't miss this book!